Two Beasts Locked in Combat, a Heaven-Sent Opportunity

He had sprinted roughly five or six hundred meters.

At last, Zhou Changqing saw something besides muddy ground and trees.

Two hundred meters ahead, two indistinct figures, mostly obscured by trees, came into view.

Loud crashes and roars came from the same direction.

At the sight of those two figures, Zhou Changqing slowed down.

Then, narrowing his eyes, he carefully crept closer.

To avoid being detected, he stopped circulating his Dou Qi and suppressed his aura as he approached.

Once he was within about a hundred meters, Zhou Changqing lay in the grass and finally made out the two creatures through the gaps between the trees.

Could it be?!

Zhou Changqing's eyes widened slightly as he stared fixedly at the two distant figures, which were constantly darting past each other and colliding!

The two magical beasts were a wolf and a leopard.

The wolf had crimson fur and was as large as an adult water buffalo, with flame-like markings across its coat.

Its claws were sharp and about two inches long, and its ears stood upright, their tips covered in yellow fur!

Actual flames continually rose from the flame markings on its body, enveloping it completely!

The leopard was somewhat larger than the wolf, with silvery-white fur, markings like streaks of lightning across its body, and a pair of fangs extending below its jaw!

Lightning flickered beneath its feet, while countless tiny arcs of electricity flashed in and out of sight amid its fur!

A Flame Wolf!

A Silver Lightning Leopard!

"Awooo!"

"Roar!"

For some unknown reason, the two magical beasts were locked in a deadly struggle, their roars resounding all around!

Flames and lightning intertwined, crackling in the rain. Wherever they spread, trees were charred black, rocks burst apart, and foot-deep craters appeared in the ground!

Their enormous bodies repeatedly crossed and collided at speeds an ordinary person's eyes could barely follow. Terrifying blasts of force scattered outward, stirring the air into fierce gusts!

Most of the trees within dozens of meters of the two beasts had already snapped or toppled, leaving the surroundings in utter chaos!

To confirm their identities, Zhou Changqing hurriedly took the portraits out of his Storage Ring and began comparing them!

After comparing them for a while, Zhou Changqing put the portraits away, a terrifying killing intent erupting in his eyes!

It really is those two brutes!

He had confirmed it: the Flame Wolf and Silver Lightning Leopard fighting in the distance were the killers responsible for his parents' deaths all those years ago!

Although neither species was particularly rare in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, there could be no mistake!

Even with a hundred meters between them, and trees and rain obstructing his view.

With Zhou Changqing's eyesight, and the different parts of their bodies exposed as they moved, he could still just barely make out their features and piece together their complete appearances.

Their distinguishing features were far too obvious.

On the Flame Wolf's flank was a half-meter-long scar where no fur grew.

And the Silver Lightning Leopard's tail showed signs of having lost a section!

These matched the highly distinctive features of the two brutes in the portraits perfectly!

This location! These features!

And the strength he could judge from the terrifying destruction their battle caused!

There could be no mistake!

Watching the Flame Wolf and Silver Lightning Leopard fight, Zhou Changqing did not act rashly. Instead, he reined in the killing intent in his eyes and waited quietly.

Heaven truly is on my side!

His original plan had been to find these two brutes and establish their circumstances, then find somewhere to stay for a while, cultivate diligently, and keep forging better Magic Core Armament.

Once he was strong enough, he would find opportunities to ambush them and kill them one by one.

After all, these two magical beasts were third-rank creatures, equivalent to human Da Dou Shi, and even stronger than ordinary Da Dou Shi.

Until he forged advanced third-rank Magic Core Armament, he had no confidence in killing these two brutes individually.

Yet he had never expected heaven to grant him such a fine opportunity today!

Not only had he found the two brutes, but he had happened upon them fighting each other. Better still, the rain had washed away every trace of his scent!

Without this downpour, their keen senses would have picked up his scent even from a hundred meters away.

Now, all he had to do was wait until both brutes were grievously wounded, then leap out as the fisherman reaping the spoils of their struggle and wipe them out in one fell swoop!

Of course, if they did not both suffer grave injuries, he would have to abandon this opportunity.

With that thought, Zhou Changqing took an extra precaution, sinking completely into the grass and lying flat on the ground, watching the two beasts only through gaps between the blades.

As time passed.

The battle between the Flame Wolf and Silver Lightning Leopard reached a fever pitch.

The energy fluctuations around both creatures grew more violent, and their flames and electrical arcs became increasingly intense!

The battlefield was left riddled with devastation by the terrifying aftershocks of their fight.

Even the battlefield itself kept shifting as they fought their way from one place to another!

The wounds on both beasts had also multiplied, blood constantly pouring out and mingling with the rain before seeping into the earth.

Flame Wolves and Silver Lightning Leopards were not particularly powerful magical beasts. Their bloodlines had a low ceiling, and the third rank was the limit of their growth. Unless they encountered some extraordinary opportunity, they had no hope of reaching the fourth rank in their lifetimes.

Both had reached their peak many years ago.

Although most magical beasts lived longer than humans, these two had remained at their peak strength for years without ever breaking through.

Now, both were nearing the end of their lives.

Even though their intelligence had yet to reach that of adult humans.

As sworn enemies who had fought each other all their lives, they both wanted to kill the other as their final hour approached, making their lifelong foe die first.

Thus, unlike their previous battles, they did not tacitly withdraw after fighting to a certain point. Instead, they staked their lives on fighting to the bitter end!

Zhou Changqing, who had kept his eyes fixed on the battlefield from the grass, also noticed that neither retreated despite being severely wounded. Instead, their fighting grew ever more vicious.

They looked utterly determined not to stop until one of them was dead!

This filled him with excitement he could barely contain!

"Awooo!"

Finally, at the fiercest point of the battle, both beasts unleashed their ultimate killing moves at the same time!

The flames covering the Flame Wolf suddenly surged, becoming a terrifying wave of heat several dozen feet high. Then they rapidly condensed into a fireball a foot in diameter, which blasted toward the Silver Lightning Leopard like a cannonball!

"Roar!"

At the same time, the Silver Lightning Leopard refused to be outdone. Electrical arcs flickered in its eyes, and masses of silvery lightning, like tiny snakes, erupted from its body and gathered in its mouth. Finally, they became a beam of lightning that shot straight at the Flame Wolf!

The two attacks were extremely fast, colliding in the blink of an eye!

"Whoosh!"

"Boom!"

The beam possessed tremendous piercing power. It punched straight through the fireball and plunged into the Flame Wolf's forehead, then shot out through its neck. Only after piercing several large trees behind it did it finally dissipate.

The pierced fireball did not disperse. Instead, bearing terrifying heat and power, it slammed into the Silver Lightning Leopard!

In an instant, a terrifying explosion engulfed the Silver Lightning Leopard, turning the surrounding area into a sea of flames over ten meters across and making the air churn and twist with heat!

"..."

A short while later.

The rain gradually extinguished the flames, revealing what lay within.

The Silver Lightning Leopard now lay collapsed on the ground. Nearly all its fur had burned away, its skin was blackened and cracked, and even the blood flowing from its wounds had been scorched into black clumps.

Even one of its front legs and one of its hind legs had been blown off in the explosion.

Its faintly rising chest and barely perceptible breathing both showed that its injuries had brought it to the very brink of death!

As for the Flame Wolf, just a few breaths after its head was pierced, it had crashed to the ground, its whole body twitching faintly.

(End of chapter)